The Challenge

Mechatronics control simulators have existed before. But the supported interfaces were limited and were not
compatible with the control hardware used at Athlete FA. Feeling the pressure, they thought: “We will be in a serious trouble if a competitor is successful in introducing one. Athlete FA’s competition is all major companies, and we won’t win unless we at least stand on the same starting line,” that was when they found the Vmech Simulator, which imports XVL data and for which the interface with the control hardware used at Athlete FA can be developed. After introducing a mechatronics control simulator in October, 2008, they spent one year in preparation including the pre-deployment validation before applying it to production design. As they unraveled individual problems such as models not being properly imported, they incorporated the rules for Athlete FA’s design and device movements into the interface of the mechatronics control simulator.

The Solution

Now they can easily move 3000 to 5000 parts with multitasking. Virtual Prototype debugging has a very important meaning for efficiently delivering "customized FA," which is an Athlete FA's advantage. “When a defect was discovered, engineers had to be rushed to the scene to perform corrective actions. Being able to improve the job completion of the software developer and designer and build a system that allows them to focus on the next new development is another important role of the mechatronics control simulator. From here onward, I want to promote an ideal flow that allows us to eliminate hardware and software bugs at the simulation stage and on the actual machine, concentrate on adjustments that further increase accuracy,” says Mr. Dobashi. Another benefit of the mechatronics control simulator is that you can perform operation checks such as seeing what kind failure would be caused if an operator accidentally made a wrong action, which cannot be tested on an actual machine because it might destroy it. Even the causes of problems that are hard to figure out on actual machines can be quickly understood.

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